Final Defense Plea in Raja Eghbariah’s Trial – Adalah: “The Indictment is Unconstitutional and Violates Freedom of Expression”
On 2 July 2025, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel submitted its final defense arguments before the Haifa Magistrates’ Court in the trial of Raja Eghbariah, a prominent Palestinian political leader in Israel. Eghbariah is a former member of the High Follow-Up Committee for Palestinian Arab Citizens of Israel and former Secretary General of the secular nationalist movement Abnaa al-Balad.
Eghbariah faces criminal charges under Israel’s 2016 Counter-Terrorism Law for ten social media posts published between July 2017 and July 2018. The charges include “incitement to terrorism” and “identification with a terrorist organization”.
According to the defense, led by Adalah’s General Director Dr. Hassan Jabareen and Attorney Hadeel Abu Salih, the indictment is politically motivated. Moreover, it criminalizes legitimate political expression, relies on vague and unconstitutional provisions of the Counter-Terrorism Law, misapplies criminal law, and forms part of a broader campaign to silence Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Israeli police arrested Eghbariah on 11 September 2018 on suspicion of incitement to violence and supporting a terrorist organization. He was held in jail until mid-October 2018, when the court released him to house arrest. On 5 July 2020, he was released from house arrest on bond and under restrictive conditions. Separately, on 9 April 2025, the authorities rearrested Eghbariah and placed him in administrative detention, where he remains today in harsh conditions, including solitary confinement. This detention is based on secret evidence and vague allegations of “contact with a foreign agent”.
In its closing arguments, the defense challenged the constitutionality of Sections 24(a)(1) and 24(b)(2) of the Counter-Terrorism Law, which criminalize loosely-defined expressions such as “identification with a terrorist organization” and “incitement to terrorism”. The defense argued that the law’s deliberately overbroad and vague wording violates the principle of legality, fails to meet constitutional standards, and stifles protected speech.
Adalah also argued that the prosecution had failed to prove the essential legal elements of the offenses. The state relied solely on the text of the social media posts, without examining context or intent. No witnesses, expert analysis, or sociocultural evidence were presented to establish how the posts were perceived by their audience or whether they could reasonably be interpreted as encouraging violence.
The indictment was riddled with critical flaws: key posts were mistranslated from Arabic to Hebrew, distorting their meaning; long posts were cited without specifying which phrases were allegedly criminal; and the political and cultural context of the statements was ignored. The defense contended that these shortcomings violated Eghbariah’s right to a fair trial and compromised his ability to respond to the charges.
The defense further submitted compelling statistical and factual evidence of discriminatory enforcement. Between 2016 and 2022, more than 95% of incitement cases brought under the Counter-Terrorism Law were against Palestinian citizens of Israel. Meanwhile, Israeli authorities have failed to prosecute widespread, explicit incitement to violence by Jewish Israelis—particularly against Palestinians—even well-documented public statements.
Press releases:
Israeli court releases Arab political leader from detention, accepting Adalah's legal defense
Israeli prosecutor reveals: Requests for jail without bail until end of trial for Facebook - Adalah
